This Lawless Love [wlw]

Chapter Eighteen: Grandmaster

As she descended the stairs, Almenira felt as though she was no longer in her body. Her feet were moving yet it didn't feel as though she was willing them to. She felt like this body, these problems, these decisions were not hers. As if she was watching a movie and sure, she was saying all the lines, but none of it felt substantial.

For a brief moment, she considered throwing herself down the rest of the stairs just to see if it would actually hurt. Part of her felt like it wouldn't. She felt like she couldn't feel anything at all.

When she found herself in front of her front door, she realized she barely remembered how she got there and yet, numb to it all, she opened the door without concern of who or what would meet her.

The only thing that greeted her, however, was a small boxed package and the lingering exhaust of the delivery truck that had just pulled away.

Almenira closed her eyes in relief at the mundane, finally letting herself breathe. Carelessly, she picked up the box and tossed it to the side on her entrance along with the disheveled pile of unread mail that had accumulated for the past months. Whatever frivolous gift she had impulsively bought herself online, could wait in the wake of certain world bending events.

She climbed the looming staircase again, feeling unsettled by her previous state of mind now that she had been sobered. When she swung her bedroom door open and fixed her lips to let Michelle know it was a false alarm, she discovered her room as empty as it should always have been.

A laugh couldn't help but bubble from her chest. Laughter at the absurd and at herself.

Almenira Oduro, a nobody from nowhere, caught up in the storm of a world she did not belong in and there she stood, awaiting devastation within its eye.

Looking at Claudia once Almenira had returned to her home, felt like meeting her for the first time all over again.

Claudia Antonik was best described as ethereal. The first time Almenira saw her upon moving to Melhearst, she was entranced like a moth to a flame. There she had stood watering a patch of peonies, with a natural air of elegance that garnered admiration and Almenira knew from just that first look, she was a woman leagues above everyone else.

The sort of woman she was was almost exclusive to glorified Hollywood depictions of what femininity should be. Always striking. Seductive. Charming. Impressing. Captivating.

She was Helen of Troy within modern society. If Claudia Antonik really wanted, she could make men start wars for her love. She was Aphrodite, commanding to be worshipped.

A perfect manipulator, after all, had to be a perfect person.

And Almenira could almost see it. It made sense, in theory, that Claudia was enchanting enough to never be suspected of any wrongdoing. Yet, if so, she certainly had the girl fooled because it also made it hard for Almenira to imagine her being capable of anything but good.

Looking at her in that moment, Almenira finally understood. She was beautiful, and that was devastating.

" I found it." Almenira sheepishly waved her phone, as she scurried back to take her seat at the table. She noted, briefly, that it was the chair furthest from the woman who she would have given everything to - who she still would give everything to, as sick as it seemed to still feel that way.

Claudia held a conservative smile, and gazed upon the girl for a few nerve wracking seconds.

'Icy blue, sees right through you,' Almenira's intrusive thoughts cruelly taunted.

The way the woman stood still made her almost believe that she could smell Michelle's scent wafting from her T-Shirt or hear the nervous pounding of her heart. But Claudia couldn't do any of those things, so Almenira pretended to be unbothered by pointlessly checking her phone.